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Concerning the cataloging of a meme under the semblance of a fun little flash game where a yeti smacks a penguin with a club.In January of 2004, an odd, addictive Flash game started spreading across the internet. It is a version of Home Run Derby where a yeti wielding a club attempts to hit a penguin as far as possible across an icy field. Aside from the inherent humor in a yeti smacking a penguin with a club, the game's simple, addictive gameplay caused it to spread across the internet like wildfire, as players repeatedly tried to beat their (and each others) high scores. No one was certain who the author of the game was, where it was originally hosted, or even what it was called. The only text in the game is a cryptic message written on a rock, reading "1978 Reinhold + Yeti." The game has been referred to by various names, including Pinguin (or Pingu), Smack the Penguin, Yeti & Penguin Baseball and probably several others. Chris Hilgert, from the Austrian game company Edelweiss Medienwerkstatt, is the inventor of the game, now formally known as Yeti Sports (part 1). This is the official press release from Edelweiss, or what passes for it. Chris tells me that the original game was a demo version, created in 4 days and intended for his membership game site at www.1moregame.com. He showed the demo to a few friends, and one of them posted the link to a .Net mailing list on January 18, 2004. Chris's test server was slashdotted several hours later. On Monday, January 19, 2004, links to the game started appearing in blogs, forums and newsgroups across Europe. By Wednesday the 21, links to the game appeared in blogs, newsgroups, websites and emails across America. Dozen of sites have hosted the game, and many soon went offline after using up all of their bandwidth (including this one!). The game's addictive nature has disrupted office productivity at many workplaces, including large companies such as Microsoft and Novell. Two other versions of the game were made available that week: the "longshot" version (a hacked version of the original where the penguin flies even farther), and the graphically-enhanced Yeti Sports version by Edelweiss Medienwerkstatt, released on January 22. Since then, the original demo has been hacked several times more to make the penguin fly even farther. 
About the GameTo play the game, click the mouse once to get the penguin to jump. Then, as the penguin is falling, click your mouse button again to swing. If you hit the penguin, it will fly across the icy field. The objective (obviously) is to get the penguin to fly as far as possible. Hint: After the penguin begins it's jump, hold down your mouse button and then let go at the exact moment you want to swing to improve your accuracy. The penguin will land in one of two ways: head-first or bouncing. If you hit the penguin high, it will fly through the air belly-first, soaring upward (sometimes off the screen) and landing in the snow head first. Hit the penguin at it's highest point in the freefall to get the most distance. While landing the penguin head-first looks really cool, you'll need to bounce the penguin to get the high scores. Hit the penguin just a little lower to get him soaring nose-first through the air. If you hit the penguin too low, it won't glide very far. Hit it just right to get him gliding high. The penguin will bounce three times before skidding to a stop. Common scoring variations include getting the highest bounce score, the highest head-first score, or even the lowest score. Because there are so many scoring variations in the game, people still haven't gotten tired of playing it (Yes, this means you!) VersionsHere is a comprehensive listing of all the versions of the game that I am aware of.
If you are hosting any of the games, or know someone who is, please send me an email and I'll list the link on this page. Yeti Sports part 1This is the finished version of the game that is being distributed by it's creators, Edelweiss Medienwerkstatt. Yeti Sports has better graphics and game play, along with a high score display. A downloadable version is available for play on your computer, and the online version has a high score database that will allow you to compete with other players over five attempts. The game play is identical to the original, with the exception that the penguin (and the score markers) fall quicker, making for faster and slightly more challenging play. Part two, "Orca Slap," has just been released. Top score is 323.5 for bounce, 207.6 head-first. OriginalThe original version of the game that first made the rounds is a crude Flash demo that is identical in gameplay to Yeti Sports part 1. All of the longshot hacks are based on this version.
OthersWide range of Pingu games was hackes of different people to produce something new and very special. Try each one of those games and you see that you'll love Pingu.1978 Reinhold + Yeti
The mysterious phrase inscribed on the rock, "1978 Reinhold + Yeti" refers to the legendary mountain climber Reinhold Messner. In 1978, Messner climbed to the summit of Mt. Everest without supplementary oxygen, which was at the time a herculean feat. In 1986, he claimed to have seen a yeti, otherwise known as the abominable snowman; the Himalayan version of Bigfoot. He spent the next 11 years trying to solve the legend of the yeti, and in his book, My Search for the Yeti, he comes to the inevitable conclusion that the yeti is likely a large brown Himalayan bear. Why I Created This PageLike many people, I found the penguin game to be an utterly addictive, yet ridiculously simple diversion. As I played the game, trying to top my best score, I began to think: Where did this come from, and isn't it curious how it spread so far so fast? Three versions of the game already existed by the time it hit America, so it was obvious that this particular meme picked up a lot of interest in a short amount of time. Almost every famous internet meme has spawned a slew of tribute sites and parodies, but at the time, the game was too new to have already formed a community around it. As a social experiment, I decided to research the origin and spread of the game and put up one of the first web pages on the topic. As new versions are created, I'll update this page to reflect the history of the game. Questions? Comments? Broken links? Legal Marijuana Do you enjoy smoking pot? Get top quality buds ordered to your house. It's perfectly legal and guaranteed to get you high! Click here! |